I have heard so many people say "who cares about the real estate market"? I felt I needed to give the other side a viewing. We all need a vibrant market for many reasons. Let me list some: employment in many industries; wealth building for all of the classes; return to normalcy in the credit markets; increase in the Gross Domestic Product and additional revenue for the Government. The last one is a big one for those of you who aren't fans of paying additional income tax and realize that a large deficit in the budget doesn't really help either.
The most mentioned reason for a vibrant real estate market is employment. Real estate employs in some manner construction workers, maintenance workers, architects, landscapers and gardeners, painters, plumbers, security companies, electricians, roofers, real estate agents, title company employees, escrow officers, mortgage employees, bankers, government workers including building inspectors, plan checkers, recorders and we should also mention attorneys and accountants. I could go on but I think you get the point. Others who benefit from real estate are furniture manufacturers,
glass companies, tile manufacturers and retailers, steel fabricators etc. How about the utility companies that employ the water, gas and electrical service people?
Directly and indirectly real estate employs a very significant amount of the working people in this country.
The wealth in this country for the average person is generally tied to the equity he or she has in their real estate. This could be a condominium, a single family residence, rental units or the ownership of commercial property. We have seen the phrase "millionaire" become common place with those who own houses and I would stake the claim that the majority of wealth in this country is in real estate. My only caveat is that "billionaire" has replace the aforementioned title as one who is at the top of the heap. Most billionaire's have made their money in the stock market valuation of their companies so I am not sure that my previous claim is still true. Nevertheless for the middle class real estate is still the one!
Having the equity in their houses has helped the middle class carry the burden of this country because 70% of the spending comes from this group, who up to now has been able to reap the reward of home ownership and use the money from their house(s) to continue to buy the goods and services of our nation. A vibrant real estate market has kept us going, a falling market is reflected in the recession or recession like atmosphere which is currently gripping our Country.